The Northeastern and Midwestern forests are the defining elements of much of the natural environment in their region. This region is the most heavily forested region of the United States, and 76 percent of the forested lands are privately owned, mostly by non-industrial, family landowners. Sustaining this mix of privately owned and public forests involves understanding their ecology (at scales ranging from individual organisms to broad landscapes); their relationships to people and communities; and developing appropriate management strategies in the face of changing environmental conditions (climate) and of changing social conditions (economics and demographics).

2014 Research Highlights

Scientists Collaborate to Deliver Best Science on Climate Change and Forests

More than 130 scientists and natural resource managers collaborated to provide high-quality information on the effects of climate change on forest ecosystems

USDA Forest Service scientists are working with a diverse network of partners to develop and deliver key information about climate change impacts to forest ecosystems. Forest managers working on public, private, and tribal lands are most interested in specific, local information, that helps them understand the effects of climate change on the places where they work. Until recently, this information was not easily accessible to managers because it was dispersed across many complex scientific papers and studies. Forest Service scientists and their partners hosted a series of workshops that interpreted the latest information on climate change impacts and assessed the vulnerability of different ecosystems to climate change. The result is a series of vulnerability assessment reports summarizing current scientific knowledge about climate change in different forested regions of the Midwest and Northeast. Each assessment provides information on past and projected climate change, as well as expected changes in forests based on modeling studies and other research. Most important, information is provided for individual forest communities, increasing relevance and usefulness for forest managers. This assessment series will also form a core product for the newly created USDA Regional Climate Hubs, which are designed to aid forest managers in making climate-informed decisions.

A nation-wide operational-scale management experiment shows that silvicultural treatments can reduce the vulnerability of forests to drought

In much of the United States, summer droughts are expected to become more frequent and intense, and longer in duration due to climate change. Soil moisture deficits will cause declines in tree vigor and loss of forest growth, resulting in degraded wildlife habitat, reduced carbon uptake, and loss of forest productivity. Researchers with the Forest Service, the USGS, and the Universities of Minnesota and Maine have implemented an experiment on USFS experimental forests to examine forest growth response to past droughts as influenced by different levels of tree stocking (basal area) and regeneration methods. The study capitalizes on Forest Service R&D’s unique research infrastructure on Experimental Forests, which maintains long-term silvicultural experiments with different stand structures that are 50 years old or older, across several past drought events in a wide range of forest types. Results show that stocking levels can minimize growth losses during and after drought in a range of forests, including red pine, ponderosa pine, and northern hardwoods. This project is unique in scope and scale and is helping managers understand how to adapt forests to a changing climate so the effects of drought are minimized and ecosystem goods and services continue.

Opportunities to meet landowner goals for their forestland

Afforestation is One Means of Increasing Forest Carbon Storage. Photo by Stephanie Snyder, USDA Forest Service

If forest carbon management activities are to have a meaningful role in national carbon sequestration efforts, private forest landowners will likely need to play a significant role. Forest Service scientists and university partners conducted focus groups with private forest landowners in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin to gain greater understanding into landowner attitudes toward carbon management and carbon market participation. Results suggest that landowners prefer higher carbon credit payments and shorter contract lengths than those currently offered in carbon market platforms. Landowners with the greatest interest in participating in carbon markets see carbon management as way to make changes that would improve the quality of their forestland. Conversely, landowners who are satisfied with the quality of their forestland or the way in which it is currently managed are less interested in participating in forest carbon markets. Overall, scientists found greater interest in the personal benefits that landowners might attain from carbon management, rather than the public good of reducing carbon levels. Research suggests that carbon market participation may not be the most effective means of encouraging forest landowners to sequester carbon, and that opportunities may exist to promote carbon management through existing forest landowner assistance programs.

Products & Resources:

Uneven-Aged Management: Is It Sustainable?

Compartment 8C on the Fernow Experimental Forest has been harvested seven times since 1948 using uneven-aged management technique and continues to be a productive stand. Photo by Richard Hovatter, USDA Forest Service

In North America, interest in uneven-aged management grew in the second-half of the twentieth century after most of the old-growth forests had been harvested. In the uneven-aged management style, trees from all size classes are periodically removed to mimic the patterns of older, unmanaged forests. To investigate this management style, Forest Service scientists set up long-term experiments on the Fernow Experimental Forest in West Virginia. In the ensuing half-century, almost all of foresters’ original beliefs about forest management were partially or wholly invalidated. Findings from the Fernow EF illustrate that the original value-laden assumptions were faulty and there is a need to test commonly held beliefs. Long-term forest research data also have many useful benefits; what were originally experiments in silviculture for sustained yield of forest products now yields information about carbon storage, forest restoration, wildlife habitat, rare species, water quality, and forest response to climate change.

Partners

Products & Resources:

2013 Research Highlights

Tree-species range shifts in a changing climate: should we assist in the process?

Assisting with natural process may help maintain species

Potential colonization of new suitable habitat in northern Wisconsin (shown in the blue-to-yellow color band) for black oak over next 100 years without assisted migration (left), and with assisted migration (right).

Foresters and ecologists are becoming increasingly concerned about the ability of tree species to “migrate” (via seed dispersal and varying seedling growth) in response to changes in climate zones resulting from global climate change. Evidence from pollen records estimate historical rates of movement by trees at about 30 miles per century. When the impacts of humans are added, like the creation of migration barriers with extensive agriculture, the rate of natural migration is slowed even further so that it now is much slower than the rate of climate change. The Forest Service scientists who developed the Climate Change Bird and Tree Atlases have studied the effects of a modeled “forestry or ecosystem assisted migration,” in which trees would be planted in climatically suitable locations outside (usually to the north) of current ranges to counter the effects of warming temperatures on survival and growth. They modeled the effect of “planting” (via computer) several stands of black oak and found that the rate of migration was hastened into its new suitable habitat in Wisconsin.

Partners

Products & Resources:

Synthesis of the Fire-Oak Literature

Review clarifies best use of prescribed fire to regenerate mixed-oak forests

Dormant-season prescribed fires in mixed oak forests with an intact canopy provide little initial benefit to oak seedlings. However, several such fires conducted over a decade or more and eventually coupled with substantial canopy disturbance will lead to successful regeneration of oak. USFS photo.

The fire-oak hypothesis asserts that the current lack of wildland fire is behind the widespread difficulties in regenerating oaks (Quercus spp.) in eastern North America and that use of prescribed fire can help solve this problem. Forest Service scientists ran a meta-analysis of 52 papers from 32 prescribed fire studies conducted in mixed-oak forests to test the latter assertion. Overall, the results suggested that prescribed fire can contribute to sustaining oak forests in some situations. They identified several factors key to its successful use. Prescribed fire reduced midstory stem density, although this reduction was concentrated in the smaller-diameter stems. Prescribed fire preferentially selected for oak reproduction and against mesophytic hardwood reproduction, but this difference did not translate to an increase in the relative abundance of oak in the advance regeneration pool. Fire equalized the height growth rates of the two species groups. Establishment of new oak seedlings tended to be greater in burned areas than in unburned areas. Generally, prescribed burning provided the most benefit to oak reproduction when the fires occurred during the growing season and several years after a substantial reduction in overstory density. Single fires conducted in closed-canopy stands had little impact in the short term, but multiple burns eventually benefitted oaks in the long term, especially when followed by a canopy disturbance.

Partners

Products & Resources:

Aerial transport of spruce budworm moths

Using meteorology and insect flight biology to simulate dispersal

Simulated spruce budworm moth dispersal via wind currents from a localized outbreak in Minnesota in June 2007. Forest Service scientists and partners are developing a new modeling approach that may be applied to a wide array of important forest and agricultural pest species.

Many economically important insect pest species rely on wind to disperse over great distances. Dispersal patterns traditionally have been difficult to measure, in part because the flight biology and behavior of insects is not well understood. The spruce budworm, a destructive defoliator native to North American boreal forests, however, has been well studied and adult budworms (moths) are known to disperse hundreds of kilometers using air currents. Forest Service scientists worked with partners to integrate the data into a budworm flight behavior model that, when coupled with output from a high-resolution atmospheric model, can produce detailed flight trajectories and deposition patterns over large landscapes. The model was tested on a small outbreak in northern Minnesota in June 2007, and resulting flight deposition patterns were consistent with budworm moth collections performed over the same time period. This modeling approach may be applied to a wide array of important forest and agricultural pest species to understand the spatial dynamics of outbreaks, and potentially forecast risk of damage and model the spread of invasive insects.

Products & Resources:

Reducing Deforestation and Forest Degradation

Promoting Sustainable Landscapes in the United States and Mexico

Members of the Ejido Atopixco community in Hidalgo, Mexico, discussing the new forest monitoring system​. Photo by Richard Birdsey, U.S. Forest Service.

Research on landscape-scale forest monitoring has been sponsored by U.S. government agencies for 10 years as part of the North American Carbon Program and since 2011 by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Forest Service under the “Sustainable Landscapes” program. Intensive monitoring sites were established at seven experimental forests in the U.S. and three demonstration sites in Mexico. Research towers loaded with monitoring equipment reach from the forest floor to a height of 15 meters above the tops of the trees, and a network of field measurement sites is scattered over 9 km2 of the surrounding landscape. These sites are used for research and teaching, developing forest management practices, and forging links to the needs of communities. The sites support the information requirements for implementing programs such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), a program that enables communities in developing countries to receive payments for ecosystem services such as reduced carbon emissions or improved forest management. In addition to providing benchmark data for REDD+ projects at the community scale, the sites are valuable for validating state and national estimates from satellite remote sensing and the national forest inventory.

2012 Research Highlights

Is a Once Mighty Tree Species Ready for a Comeback?

James McKenna, U.S. Forest Service

The Northern Research Station, the Hoosier National Forest,
and the Indiana Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation established a blight resistant American chestnut planting at Buck Creek on the Hoosier National Forest in spring, 2012.

American chestnut was the dominant tree species in the Appalachian Mountains before an introduced fungus almost extirpated it and changed the way of life for early inhabitants who relied on this tree for food, shelter, and animal production. Helping the American chestnut tree move toward a comeback, the Northern Research Station's Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center (HTIRC) and The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) have begun two restoration plantings on the Wayne and Hoosier National Forests. HTIRC staff from both NRS and Purdue University and the Indiana Chapter of TACF helped coordinate and plant the initial restoration sites in the Midwest. These plantings are an important next step to test blight resistance in the field and to understand the ecological steps necessary for successful restoration of American chestnut.

Contact

Partners

National Forest System: Wayne and Hoosier National Forests; Indiana State Nursery; Purdue University; The American Chestnut Foundation, Indiana Chapter

Harvest Gaps to Restore Tree Diversity in Managed Forests

Trisha Moore, University of Minnesota and U.S. Forest Service

Researchers search under thick raspberry (Rubus sp.)
for tree seedlings in a large gap 13 years after harvest.

A medium-size (20-m-diameter) gap has been accepted in practice as the "perfect" gap size to restore or maintain tree diversity in northern hardwood forests. However, when tree regeneration in harvest gaps of various sizes was examined for over a decade in northern hardwoods, the results were surprising. Less abundant tree species were found to grow better in larger gaps (up to 46 m in diameter) but survive better in small gaps (6- to 10-m-diameter), suggesting that medium gaps may provide an acceptable tradeoff between growth and survival. However, the density of these species was low, regardless of gap size, suggesting that the role of gap size in tree diversity may be dampened by other site factors such as deer browsing and shrub competition. This work challenges conventional wisdom about the perfect gap size and provides empirical evidence to guide management decisions on responses of trees to gap size. Results from this research are already influencing forest management practice and planning on public lands in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Effects of Disturbance, Climate, and Management on U.S. Forest Carbon

Recent climate variability (increasing temperature and droughts) and atmospheric composition changes (nitrogen deposition, rising carbon dioxide concentration), along with harvesting, wildfires, and insect infestations, have had significant effects on U.S. forest carbon uptake. The carbon changes in forests of the conterminous U.S. can be attributed to disturbance and non-disturbance factors. Scientists from the Northern Research Station combined an advanced ecosystem process model with data from Forest Inventory and Analysis and remote sensing to separate the effects of disturbance factors (harvesting, fire, and insects) from non-disturbance factors (climate variability, carbon dioxide fertilization, and nitrogen deposition). Results showed that disturbance factors had the strongest effects overall, but with significant regional and temporal differences. This is the first time such separation of causes has been possible at the continental scale. This new information can be used to support development of policies and approaches to improve sustainable forest management and provide for cleaner air and water.

Contact

Partners

University of Toronto; Nanjing University, China

New Management Strategies for Northern White-Cedar

U.S. Forest Service

Foresters inspect a northern white-cedar tree in northern Maine.

Northern white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis L.) is one of the least studied commercially important species in the northeastern U.S. and Canada. White-cedar is valued as a source of niche products such as shingles and fence posts and as a sacred plant for Native Americans; it contributes to biodiversity by increasing local tree species richness and providing wildlife habitat. But foresters have little and often contradictory information about cedar ecology and silviculture. In response to this information need, Northern Research Station scientists and their partners conducted more than a decade of research, resulting in new silvicultural guidelines for white-cedar in the variety of habitat types where it is found. Their work includes a synthesis of knowledge as well as new studies of white-cedar regeneration, growth, mortality, site relationships, and responses to treatment. Their recommendations include retaining and releasing cedar in managed stands, and establishing and protecting advance regeneration and residual trees during harvesting. A new management guide, jointly published by the U.S. Forest Service and the Canadian Forest Service in English and French, has been produced.

2011 Research Highlights

Long-Term Differences in Forests With Different Deer Densities

Thirty years after a study on the effects of deer on forest ecosystems established new forest stands at deer densities ranging from 10 to 64 deer per square mile, Forest Service scientists found that tree species diversity, canopy foliage density, insect density and bird density, all decreased significantly as the deer density at stand initiation increased. If deer densities were high initially, the effects carried over, even if densities were lower later.

Read more

In a large-scale, 30-year controlled experiment, Forest Service scientists found that 10 years of different densities of white-tailed deer created contrasting forest tree communities with effects that ricocheted up the food chain even 20 to30 years later. Higher deer densities during stand initiation resulted in significantly reduced diversity of tree species, and density of canopy foliage, canopy insects, and birds, even thirty years later. Because recruitment of trees from seedlings to the canopy occurs over a relatively brief, early period (for about 10 years) these results show that even short-term variations in deer density may cause centuries-long disruptions to forest ecosystem structure and function. As numbers of predators decline and herbivores increase worldwide, similar effects may persist long after herbivore density becomes effectively managed.

Principal Investigators

Partners

Forest Service partners: National Forest System,Allegheny National ForestExternal partners: Timothy Nuttle and Ellen Yerger, Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Forestry and Pennsylvania Game Commission; Seneca Resources

Housing Trends and Impacts on the Secondary Wood Industry

Forest Service researchers analyzed the current housing market through the perspectives of subscribers to a major U.S. trade publication with more than 33,000 subscribers in the secondary woodworking industry. These subscribers---manufacturers of cabinets, flooring, architectural fixtures, and related products--- are critical users of lumber from the nation’s hardwood forests. This analysis provides small manufacturers with information to better understand their current economic and competitive environment and with ideas for surviving the housing downturn.

Read more

Forest Service scientists, working in collaboration with Virginia Tech and Wood & Wood Products magazine, analyzed the current housing market through the perspectives of the magazine’s 33,000 subscribers. This analysis was requested as a follow-up to a successful study with the same cooperators in 2010. An article based on the 2010 study, for example, was among the “top 5 most-viewed articles” for the entire year on Wood & Wood Products’ website, illustrating the importance of this research to wood manufacturers. In the 2011 study, the scientists developed a series of questions to measure the impacts of the housing downturn on the wood products industry and to determine what actions were being taken to remain profitable. The survey was then presented by the magazine’s staff to their subscribers. The results help manufacturers (especially smaller firms) better understand current economic conditions and tactics within their industry and are invaluable to researchers as a barometer of industry activity and perceptions. The results were published in the July 2011 edition of Wood & Wood Products as a cover featureand posted on the magazine’s website.

More Information

Impediments to Woody Biomass Utilization on Federal Lands

Although increasing utilization of woody biomass from federal lands is seen as a key part of facilitating fuels treatments on federal lands, efforts to increase utilization have met with limited success. Forest Service researchers studying the social dynamics of biomass use on ten sites on federal lands therefore paid particular attention to assessing the reality of persistent conventional wisdoms about what limits utilization.

Read more

Because “accepted truths” are not necessarily accurate, they can negatively influence the framing of problems and actions. The researchers found that the conventional wisdoms were reasonably accurate, although the degree to which each impeded progress varied.

The regional ice storm of 1998 damaged the crowns of many hardwood trees, including paper birch. Subsequent crown dieback and mortality of paper birch has been reported throughout New York and New England. A Forest Service scientist and collaborators evaluated the timing and nature of decline in Vermont and found that birch experienced dramatic reductions in woody growth following the 1998 ice storm. However, trees on calcium-rich soils rebounded in growth after initial declines, whereas trees on calcium-poor soils experienced continued low growth and crown deterioration. This phenomenon has been previously documented for red spruce and sugar maple in the region, highlighting the importance of calcium---a nutrient vulnerable to leaching loss from acid rain---for tree recovery from environmental stress.

2010 Research Highlights

Second edition published of The Ecology and Silviculture of Oaks

The second edition of The Ecology and Silviculture of Oaks was recently authored by retired NRS scientist Paul Johnson (Columbia, MO) and NRS scientist Stephen Shifley), with their colleague Robert Rogers (University of Wisconsin--Stevens Point, Emeritus). With 580 pages and more than 200 figures, the second edition includes much new material on artificial regeneration, effects of climate change, managing for biomass and carbon sequestration, oak decline, and sudden oak death as well as the material covered in the 10 chapters of the first edition.

Read more

This book presents a holistic approach to oak ecology and silviculture across the more than 200 million acres of oak forests and mixtures in the United States. It is not a manual or how-to guide for oak silviculture, but rather a source of ideas on how to think about oak forests as responsive ecosystems.

Web -enabled database site for Center for Forest Mycology Research expanded

The culture collection and herbarium maintained by the Center of Forest Mycology Research (CFMR) in Madison, Wisconsin is one of the largest fungal “libraries” in the world. The collection specializes in fungi associated with wood and contains both living fungi and dried reference specimens, which are used by researchers worldwide in studying forest pathology, disturbance biology, fungal genetics, distribution of invasive species, and impact of climate change on forest ecosystems. The CFMR’s web-enabled database, accessible at http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/research/centers/mycology/culture-collection.shtml, has recently been enlarged and updated.

Read more

It enables researchers around the world to access files about the CFMR’s 13,000 cultures and 50,000 dried specimens representing over 1000 fungal species in a user-friendly software interface. NRS scientists at CFMR have developed molecular tools---including “genetic fingerprinting” using DNA sequencing and cloning techniques---to detect and identify fungi both in culture, as well as directly from wood and other substrates. These techniques are currently being used to identify fungi associated with wood decomposition under different climate regimes and fungi associated with bat hibernacula for management of white-nose syndrome (a devastating disease of bats in the Eastern U.S.) as well as for tracing the spread of destructive tree root pathogens in U.S. forests.

DNA tool detects white-nose syndrome fungus in bat caves

Over one million bats, including rare and endangered species, have succumbed to white-nose syndrome, a disease first observed in 2007 in Upstate New York. This lethal disease is caused by the fungus Geomyces destructans, which continues to spread eastward across the United States. Assessing the distribution of G. destructans in environments occupied by hibernating bats is critical for WNS surveillance and management. NRS scientists Daniel Lindner and Jessie Glaeser are collaborating with the USGS Wildlife Health Laboratory in Madison, WI, to characterize the distribution of G. destructans in cave sediment samples from bat hibernation sites in the eastern United States.

Read more

They are using molecular identification techniques that Lindner helped to develop. The fungus was found in cave sediment samples from states where WNS is known to occur, suggesting that the fungus can persist in the environment, but was not found in caves outside the region of known infestations; Closely related fungi, some previously unknown to science, were also found. Bat biologists are using this research to devise strategies to save these animals from extinction.

Royo and his partners---forest managers from the Allegheny National Forest, the Bradford Watershed, Forestry Investment Associates, the Collins Pine Company, Sand County Foundation, and RAM Forest Products---found rapid, dramatic increases in overall forb and shrub cover of deer-palatable understory plants, such as trilliums and Canada mayflower, but no changes in plant species diversity. Thus, controlling deer alone may not promote diversity in overbrowsed, species-poor forests without additional restoration strategies. These results are being incorporated into a vegetation monitoring proposal by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry for use in its 2.5 million acres of state forests.

2009 Research Highlights

Training managers to use natural models for ecological silviculture

The Northern Research Station is a founding member of
the Conservation Forestry Network (CFN), which aims
to improve forest management across North America. The
CFN works by bringing together experts, land managers,
stakeholders, and decision-makers in workshops that focus on
the application of ecological principles to forest management.

Read more

NRS scientists in 2009 organized and conducted workshops
in Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Maryland, and organized
a symposium on ecological silviculture at the Society of
American Foresters annual convention in Nevada. Together,
these activities reached more than 300 forestry professionals,
working for several dozen organizations, from most forested
states. These training sessions provide forest managers and
policy makers with information on the science of natural
disturbance and stand dynamics and how these natural
processes create structurally complex, diverse, and healthy
forests. Importantly, the trainings provide practical guidelines
for integrating this ecological information into silvicultural prescriptions aimed at restoring and sustaining ecologically
healthy forests, while maintaining the productive capacity of
our forest resources.

Planning for energy utilization requires information on the
availability and future utilization trends of woody biomass
from forests. NRS scientist Jan Wiedenbeck and a partner
at Pennsylvania State University identified 342 facilities in
the northeastern United States that use pulpwood or “energy
wood.” Eighty-four percent of these facilities are in business
to produce an energy-related product; 16% use it to fuel their internal operations.

Read more

These 342 facilities potentially consume
46.9 million tons of wood per year.
Because of the location of these facilities and the forests,
this assessment suggests that future woody biomass demand
data collection be focused on five key states: Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, New York, and Pennsylvania. Smallscale
bioenergy projects pose no threat of significantly
reducing the supply of woody biomass in the Northeast
due to the ongoing decline in pulp and paper production
together with the apparent decline in other traditional woodybiomass-
using industries. Assuming the normal evolution of
events occurs in the region, woody biomass consumption will
increase by about 25 percent over the next decade. The future
direction of electricity production from wood and co-firing
of wood in coal power plants, especially in Pennsylvania,
West Virginia, and Ohio, will have the greatest impact on the
woody biomass resource.

Partner

Dr. Chuck Ray, Pennsylvania State University

Developing emerald ash borer-resistant ash

Ash timber is valued for applications requiring strong, hard
wood. In the urban landscape, ash trees are important street
trees, as they sequester pollutants, conserve energy by provide
shade, and shelter urban fauna. The emerald ash borer (EAB),
an exotic beetle from Asia, is attacking and killing all ash trees
in North America. First identified in Michigan in 2002, the
EAB has since been detected in Ontario, Ohio, Indiana, and at
least nine other states.

Read more

There are no known resistance genes in
native species of ash nor any means of complete eradication at
this time. The EAB has cost municipalities, property owners,
nursery operators, and forest products industries tens of
millions of dollars, and the ecological costs are enormous.
A team of scientists at the NRS’ Hardwood Tree Improvement
and Regeneration Center and others in East Lansing, MI,
are using gene insertion techniques to develop ash with resistance to the
EAB. Bacillus
thuringiensis
(Bt) is toxic to
caterpillars and
has widespread
use in controlling
forest pests in the
U.S. and Canada.
The team has
developed plant
tissue culture and
genetic methods
to insert a Bt toxin gene into green, white, and black ash
tissues to impart resistance to the EAB. This is a major step
toward developing ash trees that could resist the EAB.

Family forest landowners and stewardship activities

Family-owned forest lands provide goods and services that
benefit both owners and society, including recreation,
timber, wildlife habitat, and clean water. To encourage
landowners to undertake stewardship practices to protect
and sustain their forest resources, government agencies use
a variety of approaches, including incentives, tax relief,
technical assistance, and educational programs.

Read more

However, the
effectiveness of these methods has not been well examined.
NRS researcher Stephanie Snyder and partners examined the
usefulness of paying family forest owners to commit to forest
stewardship.
They found that landowner interest in enrolling in the
Minnesota’s Sustainable Forest Incentives Act (SFIA) program was significantly influenced by the payment amount, the acres
of forest land owned, the landowner’s intention to obtain a
forest management plan, opposition to the program’s covenant
requirement, and familiarity with the program. However, at
the current incentive rate offered ($5/acre), few family forest
landowners were interested. Increased compensation would
probably increase the rate of enrollment, but agencies should
consider if these higher incentive levels are feasible or warranted,
or if family forest landowners could be enticed to undertake
stewardship activities through other types of approaches.

Delivering best science for sustaining mixed oak forests

Northern Research Station scientists achieved two milestones
in science delivery, working with state forest management
agencies in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Since 2000, NRS scientists
have worked with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry to organize
science-based knowledge about oak ecology and management
into guidelines for inventory, analysis and sustaining mixed-oak
forests in the region. At the same time, these agencies have also
identifed research gaps and begun studies to close them.

Read more

Topics
include competitive ability of seedlings of different species and
sizes, and how these relationships are changed by prescribed fire,
forest harvesting, and other silvicultural activities.
The guidelines have been organized into the SILVAH decision-support
system and have been offered in training sessions in Pennsylvania, West Virginia,
and Indiana. The SILVAH
framework is continuously
updated as research results
accumulate. In 2008, this
systematic approach was
published. In 2009, the Oak-
SILVAH approach was presented for the first time in a training
session in Ohio. The response was so positive that the Ohio
Department of Natural Resources wants to incorporate Oak-
SILVAH training for its foresters.
More>>

Partners

Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources,
Bureau of Forestry

Ohio Department of Natural Resources

2008 Research Highlights

Studies track resurgence of endangered Kirtlands Warbler

Two studies by Northern Research Station scientists and collaborators spell good news for the endangered Kirtland’s warbler. Once reduced to only 167 males in 1984, the Kirtlands warbler now exceeds 1,300 with an ever-expanding territorial range.

Read more

Researchers analyzed 26 years of data to determine how forest management practices might be affecting the birds. Efforts to create suitable habitat and to establish more areas regenerated through wildfires were reported as having the most significant impacts on the warblers’ recovery.

Another study demonstrated a continuous range expansion from the warblers’ historical nesting area in lower Michigan. NRS-developed management guidelines that included increasing the amount of created habitat, providing larger stands of jack pine saplings and ensuring adjacent land had suitable-aged jack pines. As a result of an expanding population, 28 Kirtland’s warblers were found in six Wisconsin counties.

Long-term studies are vital for monitoring the success of large-scale restoration programs. Expanding habitat also reduces the vulnerability of extinction from an isolated event. The end result is what researchers are finding: a rebounding and more viable population. More>>

Habitat suitability program wins national conservation award

A consortium of wildlife and mapping specialists developed a computer program that helps land managers assess the range and habitat needs of 40 bird species with priority management designations. The GIS-based Habitat Suitability Index was developed from 2006-2008 and received a 2008 Wings Across America award for Research and Management Partnerships.

Read more

The Index provides a novel tool for conservation planners to use when developing population goals and habitat objectives for a specific area. It will help them better plan, monitor, and achieve bird conservation targets.

The tool is already being used by a regional partnership spanning 10 states in conjunction with the U.S. North American Bird Conservation Initiative. More>>

Guidebook, workshops teach methods for regenerating oak populations

Northern Research Station scientists and their collaborators have taken a proactive step in helping land managers turn the tide against decreasing oak populations in the United States. A recently released guidebook and a series of weeklong training courses are teaching forest managers how to successfully regenerate the once stable species.

Read more

Information in “Prescribing Regeneration Treatments for Mixed-Oak Forests in the Mid-Atlantic Region” had been around in bits and pieces for several years, said NRS researcher Pat Brose. However, it wasn’t until August 2008 that all the information was consolidated into a single publication.

Brose and his fellow researchers have taught the practical applications of their research to more than 400 forest managers from 12 different states through intensive training sessions in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Plans are now underway to expand those trainings into neighboring Ohio as well. More>>

Partners

Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry

Pennsylvania State University

Allegheny National Forest

Forest simulation program accounts for impacts from private forest-owners

Many National Forests in the eastern United States are interspersed with sizeable land-holdings from corporate and private landowners. The impacts of forest practices, such as timber harvesting, parcelization and even land used for recreation, from these individuals can have significant implications on the ecological goals of public land officials.

Read more

Northern Research Station scientists have developed a way to incorporate land management strategies of private forest-owners into the forest simulation program HARVEST to project their impacts on landscape fragmentation and ecological sustainability. With this information, public land managers can mitigate the accumulative effects of various forest practices within their own management strategies.

The goals of public land managers and private land-holders often conflict. This latest research, however, gives public land managers a cooperative tool for achieving landscape objectives, even when they don’t manage all the land. More>>

2007 Research Highlights

Forests and floods: What we know

Lingering questions about the relationship
between forest management and flood severity were answered with the release of
three NRS publications in fall 2007. NRS scientists and collaborators concluded that
1) Most hydrologic models are not designed to handle extreme events, such as
flooding; therefore such models must be used as predictive tools with caution; and 2)
The amount and intensity of rainfall are the main determinants of the level of peak flows and during very large
storms, harvesting activities did not significantly affect peak flows.

Read more

This trio of publications provides a technical
review of hydrological models and their utility for predicting flooding; a bibliography of literature related to
forestry and flooding; and an analysis of the 50 largest storms recorded on the Fernow Experimental Forest.

Partners

Virginia Tech

West Virginia Division of Forestry

Winter ranges of North American birds are shifting northward

NRS scientists
and cooperators determined that the northern boundaries of bird species’ winter
ranges shifted northward, on average 26.7 miles, from 1975 to 2004. While some
regional or human-related activities could affect these range shifts, the pervasiveness
of this pattern suggests global scale factors, such as climate change, are primarily
responsible.

Read more

These results are consistent with observations from Europe, but this study was conducted on a
larger geographic scope and number of species examined. This provides strong evidence that animal
distributions are responding to global change in ways consistent with a global warming and that wildlife
communities are affected through range shifts.

Partner

University of Missouri

Projecting potential impact of global change on Eastern forests

NRS
researchers expanded their online Climate Change Atlas to encompass 134 tree
species and 147 bird species, more accurate modeling tools, and newer climate
models. The Website (www.nrs.fs.fed.us/atlas) illustrates potential species
distribution in response to various climate change scenarios and is a resource for
researchers, foresters, and other partners studying global climate change.

Read more

The atlas also
helps the public and policymakers anticipate possible localized effects of global climate change.